


Cross Your Path

by Anonymous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Physical Abuse, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-06
Updated: 2012-01-08
Packaged: 2018-04-23 09:16:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4871368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Homesmut Fill - Prompt: http://homesmut.dreamwidth.org/10143.html?thread=19102623#cmt19102623</p><p>Gamzee did not kill Nepeta with just a single club to the head. He beat the living tar out of her first, broke every bone in her body, and finally, when she could no longer even muster the strength to stand up (or her body simply wouldn't let her anymore), raped her brutally and violently. The plan was to establish her as a kismesis, but he went overboard a little and ended up killing her off entirely.</p><p>The more graphic and long-winded detail put in all this, the better.</p><p>Bonus points if she fights back the whole time, never stopping, not even long after it's evident that she cannot win.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Betrayal

_SNAP!_  
  
Like a twig breaking.  
  
Like the dry, brittle kind that used to litter the forest floor around her cave.  
  
The kind she had always been so careful to avoid or risk alerting her prey to her presence.  
  
Only this wasn't a twig. It was her wrist bones snapped cleanly in half by the strength of Gamzee's grip. Her eyes watered as she came back to herself, came back to the pain, and watched the other troll rake her claws across his own face, raising three furrows that spilled indigo down his nose and cheeks.  
  
He squeezed her wrist, sending the jagged points of bone digging into soft tissues. Laughing when she cried out, he shoved her away.  
  
Her back slammed into the wall and she slid down, curling in on herself as she clutched her wrist to chest, watching the other troll hover over the body of her moirail.  
  
“i can't get my understand on why you're all up and raging at me” He knelt down beside Equius, turning the dead troll's head so it faced Nepeta. “LOOK HOW MOTHERFUCKING MIRTHFUL HE IS!” Giggling, he reached out to palm the lingering erection tenting Equius' shorts. “fucking lowblood freak”  
  
Snarling, Nepeta lunged again, lashing out with her good arm while still holding the broken one against her body. Bringing her full weight against Gamzee's chest, she managed to sink her teeth into one of his ears before he flipped her over his head to crash to the floor, landing on her back. Righting herself almost immediately, she growled, bearing purple stained fangs.  
  
“aww, does little kitty sister wanna roughhive?” Turning to face her, blood still ran from the gouges across his face and now dribbled onto his shoulder from the frayed tears in his right ear. “CAUSE WE CAN MOTHERFUCKING ROUGHHIVE.” Advancing slowly, he purposely scuffed the toes of both shoes against Equius' limp frame as he stepped over it. Anticipating her next attack, he caught Nepeta's good arm and yanked on her sleeve, spinning her right out of her jacket entirely and relishing the little shriek that came when the other sleeve briefly caught on her ruined arm.  
  
Breathing hard, Nepeta crouched low, straining the full strength of her leg muscles to propel herself at her enemy. Releasing a loud, yowling screech as she sprung forward with extended claws and flashing teeth, her target blinked out of sight, a shadow, then less. She looked all around, revolving in place, trying not to let her glance linger for more than a moment on Equius. She couldn't afford the loss of focus.  
  
Silence.  
  
Her ears twitched. A prickling ran up the back of her neck. She was suddenly very aware of the throbbing in her arm, perfectly timed with the panicked beat of her bloodpusher. Swollen and stiff and sore and turning steadier more olive beneath her skin, she could barely move that arm now.  
  
_Honk_  
  
Spinning around, she searched the darkness, every corner, willing her eyes to make out some vague shape, her ears to pick up some tiny sound, the slightest hint before–  
  
His full weight came down on her back and her good arm flew out to brace herself, to keep her face from hitting the floor. Her bad arm was crushed beneath their combined weight and she hissed through her teeth, eyes squeezing shut as more tears leaked out.  
  
Flipping her onto her back, he grabbed her arms, pinning them to the floor beneath his knees. Dipping two clawed fingers beneath her chin, he scratched playfully. “such a good kitty– OW!” He slapped her. “NO MOTHERFUCKING BITING!” Waggling a chiding finger in her face, he raked his fingers through her hair, getting a good grip, and ripping a pinchful from her scalp.  
  
Crying out, Nepeta thrashed beneath him, ignoring the searing pain in her arm as she desperately fought to unseat him.  
  
Unconcerned with her struggle, Gamzee lazily curled his fingers around her horns, squeezing them experimentally before beginning a slow, stroking pattern.  
  
Gasping, wide-eyed and going green, she flailed and struggled all the more ferociously. Shifting her weight to her shoulders and upper back, she swung her legs up to bring the toes of her shoes, one after the other, hard against his back. Taking her chance when he lurched forward, she twisted and wrenched her body, wriggling out of his grasp and scrambling to get out of his reach.  
  
“feisty little kitty, AREN'T WE?” Getting to his feet and circling the corpse, he bent down to pluck something from the floor before loping after her. Watching her hesitate at the opposite end of the platform, he saw that she had reclaimed her jacket but appeared unable to pull it on over her mangled arm. Stopping when he was about twenty feet away from her, he tilted his head to one side, running his tongue over his teeth as he grinned. Unfolding the stems of Equius' cracked sunglasses, he slipped them on.  
  
“Take. Those. Off,” Nepeta spat each word, shaking all over.  
  
Lifting his hands palm up, Gamzee twitched his fingers. “COME MOTHERFUCKING TAKE THEM.”  
  
Flinging her jacket aside, she charged at the other troll, abandoning a head-on attack to zigzag across the platform, feet leaving the ground at the last second to rain teeth and claws and rage from above.  
  
Scuffing one shoe against the floor, Gamzee began running the same moment she did, ducking his head as she leapt at him and rearing up to sink the points of both his horns into her stomach. Hands on her sides, he twisted his body and flung her over the edge of the platform to plummet shrieking to the floor below.  
  
Forcing herself out of that initial moment of blind terror, Nepeta twisted her body, getting herself right side up just in time for her feet to hit the floor, sending bolts of agony ripping up her legs and into her hips. She crumpled to the floor as her ankles gave out beneath her.  
  
Something heavy struck the floor just to the left of her and she crab walked frantically backwards, dragging her useless legs. It took her another moment to realize it was Equius, still wearing his macabre grin along with the bowstring, but now all his limbs were bent and twisted at impossible angles to match his neck.  
  
Gamzee was still on the ledge above them, watching to see if the corpse would land on the kitty after he lobbed it over the edge. Disappointed that he had missed her, he adjusted his new sunglasses before turning to collect Nepeta's jacket. Tucking it under one arm, he flash stepped his way from ledge to crack to crevice, down, down, down until he was right back by her side.  
  
Looking her over, he aimed a sharp kick at one of her ankles, satisfied with her pained screech and panicked crawling to get out of range. Dropping her jacket on the floor, he turned his attention to the corpse at his feet. Tilting his head as he surveyed the dead troll, he ran his fingers absently through his wild hair. “this here is all up and got my remember on…” He pointed at the corpse, struggling to put a name to his sense of deja vu. “something about the way HIS ARMS AND SHIT are all up and MOTHERFUCKING BENT AND DANGLY.”  
  
Walking around the body, Gamzee picked up the broken halves of the bow. Pulling the corpse up by its neck, he maneuvered it into a kneeling position, giggling as its legs dragged along limp and broken behind it.  
  
“Leave him alone!” Nepeta shouted, inhaling wetly though her nose in an attempt to get it to stop running. She winced as she tried to get up, cautiously trying her weight on her ankles, only to collapse with a sharp gasp.  
  
“no” Pushing the dead troll awkwardly ahead of him, Gamzee guided it with pulls and tugs on the bow string, inching it closer to Nepeta. Clearing his throat, he deepened his voice in an imitation of the blue blood. “nepeta, you will cease this f001shness at once”  
  
“Stop it.” Nepeta shrank away, again avoiding looking at her moirail, but still catching sight of the string digging in deeper with the strain of supporting Equius' weight.  
  
“WHYEVER ARE YOU CRYING, NEPETA it's those gosh darn gutterb100ds, isn't it”  
  
“STOP IT!” Crying in earnest now, but still unable to make eye contact with Equius even though his face was nearly level with hers, she grasped blindly for the front of his shirt, entertaining some small hope that she could wrestle him away from Gamzee's horrible puppet show.  
  
“why nepeta, this is most unseemly behavior for moirails IT'S POSITIVELY 100D” Gamzee pulled the string even tighter, tugging harder and harder on the halves of the bow while Nepeta pulled in vain at Equius' shirt. The string shrank it on itself, sinking deeper and deeper into the dead troll's neck until, with one sharp wrench on Gamzee's part, the string pulled taught with an audible twang.  
  
Nepeta screamed as the body pitched forward, landing heavily on top of her. A sluggish dribble of blue blood oozed out and spattered across her face.  
  
“oh fiddlest% I SEEM TO HAVE LOST MY HEAD” Gamzee erupted into a fit of cackles, nearly choking before it devolved into a sequence of honks.   


	2. Blame

The stench of death overwhelmed Nepeta, leeching into her hair and clothing. She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth to keep the blood from getting inside. Squirming pathetically, she found herself without the strength to shove Equius' body off of her. Instead, she managed to shift it just enough to allow herself to roll onto her stomach. Supporting her weight with her good arm, she felt her stomach knot in on itself. Olive fluid and stomach acid suddenly splashed against the floor. Coughing, she dug her claws into the grooves between the tiles in order to drag herself out from under the body, paying no mind when she had to slide through her own sick in the process.  
  
Nepeta felt the weight of the body lift away. She glanced over her shoulder to find Gamzee pulling the body upright, his fingers sinking two knuckles deep inside the gaping neck.  
  
“tell you what, kitty sister. LET'S GET TO PLAYING A FUN LITTLE MOTHERFUCKING GAME.” Shoving the body aside, he knelt down, loosely straddling Nepeta's lower back as he stroked her hair. “i'm gonna be a real generous kinda messiah and give you a running motherfucking start…” He leaned in close, letting his breath wash over one of her horns. “TRY TO HIDE.” His shift in volume made Nepeta flinch. “but if i up and find you, I'M GONNA BREAK ALL YOUR FINGERS AND TOES one by fucking one.”  
  
As soon as he pulled away, Nepeta was on her feet, ignoring every protesting injury and bolting across the platform toward the nearest flight of stairs.  
  
She needed to get out of sight.  
  
Back on the platform she had been thrown from, she looked up at the vent she had been hiding in. She knew she could leap to it, but doubted her ability to hoist herself back inside with only one good arm. She scanned the walls in hopes of finding a lower vent. Her heart leapt, sure she had spotted one. She hurried up another flight of stairs to get a closer look.  
  
A stack of old computer towers was partially blocking the grate. Nepeta winced as she shouldered them slowly aside. The grate was held in place by three screws, one was missing from the bottom left corner. Slipping a claw into the remaining bottom screw, she began to work it loose. Fighting against the urge to look over her shoulder, her ears rose to full attention, twitching as they strained to pick up any sound. The screw came loose, clinking to the floor. Starting on one of the top corners, she was a little too hasty in her attempt to unscrew it. The tip of her claw snapped off.  
  
“ _Furuck!_ ” she hissed, flinching immediately after only to remember that there was no one to chastise her. Sucking on her claw for a moment, she then slid her hand under the loose side of the vent, testing its give. Chancing to glance over her shoulder now, she decided she would risk the noise. Grabbing hold of the vent, she wrenched it up, causing it to fold it on itself where the top screws still held it in place. Scrambling into the ventilation shaft, she slipped her fingers through the grating to yank the grate back into place. It still looked suspiciously damaged, but it would have to do.  
  
Navigating through the ventilation system proved far more complicated as she attempted to make as little noise as possible while trying to find her way back to her original entry point. After far too many wrong turns and a few near misses where the duct suddenly opened into a vertical drop, Nepeta found herself once more looking down on the platform where she had seen… _it_ happen. Finding things more familiar, she retraced her path. Holding her breath when she had to venture into the corridor with the disabled transportalizer pads, she ducked into the second vent as quickly as possible.  
  
Once back in the room adorned with the most recent additions to her shipping wall, she clumsily fit the grate back into place. Cradling her arm against her chest, she inspected the toppled computer equipment, wondering if she could get it in front of the grate. Knowing it was unlikely, she made her way to the door only to be reminded that it was unmovable. Equius had blocked it from the outside, for her _safety_. He had helped create the perfect little cell for her to be _safely_ clubbed to death in. Laughing bitterly, it came out shrill and unnatural as she banged a fist against the door. Pressing her forehead against the steel, she took a moment to think.  
  
Drawing a breath, it rushed out in a puff of exasperation as she turned back. The ventilation system remained her only option. Crouching inside the narrow tunnel, she curled in on herself as she closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. Ears twitching, she inhaled through her nose several times, trying to discern familiar scents from the dust and grime.  
  
It was worse than before. Struggling to make as little noise as possible while every scratch of her own hands and knees against metal was a distant honk, the soft _shuff shuff_ of her clothing was a club dragged along the floor. She dreaded every grate she passed, every blind corner looming ahead, waiting for arms to plunge in and wrench her kicking and screaming from relative safety.  
  
Claustrophobia set in.  
  
It was something she had never experienced before. She used to prefer dark, tight spaces that she could just barely squirm into. It was how she used to sleep everyday, curled snuggly around Pounce De Leon as they hid from the blistering sun that always managed to find its way in through tiny cracks and chinks in the cave walls. Now the metal walls tightened around her, amplifying every little knock and bang she failed to muffle until it drowned out any hope of hearing an attack even if it came screaming toward her at a full run.  
  
Then she realized it was her own wheezy gasps that were so loud in her ears. She couldn't catch her breath. Broken fingers and toes were sounding pretty good right then, as long as it meant that she could get out of that shaft. She kicked out the next grate she came to, barely flinching as it crashed to the floor.  
  
Jumping down, she landed quietly on her feet, crouching again as she found her bearings. This was familiar. She knew this corridor. It was floors away from where she had started and well within creeping distance of the room she had laid claim to as a makeshift respiteblock. Heart thudding hopefully against her ribs, she streaked down the hallway, keeping low and close to the wall.  
  
The door clicked shut as she leaned against it.  
  
Drawing and releasing a breath, she was right back to cradling her arm as she sank to a seat in the middle of the room. She was surrounded on all four walls, from the floor to as high as she could reach – and a little higher still where she had been able to stand on the table – by her Shipping Wall. This one, the unofficial official one, depicted every possible romantic coupling or tripling no matter how ridiculously unlikely or how deeply sunk.  
  
She glanced at the somewhat crooked rows and columns, never letting her gaze linger too long on any particular ship. She didn't want to imagine what was happening to her friends, what may have already happened. Didn't want to wonder how many were left, or weren't. Couldn't let herself think that she was all alone with Gamzee.  
  
The tears came again. Harder than before. She bit her lower lip to quiet them. She rocked in place, flinching when she hugged her arms to tightly against her chest. Olive streamed down her face to mingle with the blood drying on her shirt, indigo still stained her claws, flecks of blue in her hair.  
  
“Equius…” she breathed, shutting her eyes against the stinging taunt of pink diamonds. “Why?”  
  
“Why”  
  
Her eyes snapped open. She was back on her feet.  
  
The word had echoed, but the room wasn't remotely large enough for her own voice to be bouncing back to her.  
  
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She pivoted to face the wall opposite the door. A sudden thrill of horror shot through her.  
  
Equius. One of the many, tiny painted Equiuses had turned his head away from the tiny painted Aradia he was sharing a bright red heart with. He was facing out, looking directly at– “Nepeta, why”  
  
Frozen, Nepeta's mouth had fallen open, and she began to slowly shake her head.  
  
“Why did you do nothing Why did you allow the highb100d to cull me”  
  
Tiny beads of blue formed at his neck, marking the ghost of the bowstring.  
  
“Why did you stand by and do nothing”  
  
Other Equiuses had joined the first, turning away from matesprits, from kismesises, from tiny painted versions of Nepeta to stare accusingly at the real thing. Blue ran from their throats, from their eyes, washing tiny pairs of sunglasses away as it cascaded down to smear the other pairings before pooling on the floor.  
  
The puddle grew, spreading, reaching for Nepeta as she backed toward the door. The chorus of Equiuses only grew louder as she retreated.  
  
“WHY DID YOU ABANDON ME NEPETA”  
  
“WHY DID YOU CULL ME”  
  
“WHY”  
  
“WHY”  
  
“ _ **WHY**_ ”  
  
Slipping in the blood – no – the paint that had collected behind her, Nepeta flung open the door and fled blindly down the corridor. All caution was forgotten, the need to stay quiet, the need to stay hidden, all overthrown by the overwhelming desire to escape the screaming, hemorrhaging disappointment of her moirall.  
  
Nepeta's flight halted when she hit something. Something solid but warm, something _alive_. A panicked screech found her tongue and she swiped, claws extended, with her strong arm.  
  
“NEPETA.”  
  
An equally panicked shout met her ears and her claws struck something metal. A sickle, she discovered as her vision swam back into full clarity. Chest heaving, she stared at the other troll in confusion for what must have been a full minute.  
  
“Karkat?”  
  
“NEPETA.” The other troll flinched at his own volume, looking nervously over his shoulder before lowering his voice. “Nepeta, what are you…” he trailed off, apparently only then getting a good look at her as he lowered his weapon. “You're hurt. What the fuck happened? Where's Equius?” He looked over her head, as if expecting to see the blue blood soon at her heels.  
  
Straightening up, Nepeta shook her head. “We have to get out of sight. We need to hide.”  
  
Blinking, Karkat shook his head slightly before turning to look over his shoulder again. “I was holed up in a room back there. Gamzee has completely flipped his shit and it's been nothing but honking and blood on the walls and headless corpses.” Shuddering, he turned back to Nepeta. “I came out when I heard you screaming, I thought… did Gamzee do this to you?”  
  
“Screaming?” Wanting to get out of such a wide open space, Nepeta had begun walking toward the room Karkat had indicated, nodding slightly in response to his question.  
  
Karkat hurried to catch up with her after a moment, opening the door once they reached it, and closing it tightly once they were both inside. Captchaloging his sickles, he began reassembling what appeared to be a recently demolished furniture barricade against the door.  
  
“The vent too.” Nepeta pointed to the grate in the corner. “I'd been using them to get around. And he knows.”  
  
Once they were as firmly sealed inside as they could manage, Nepeta knelt down beside Karkat on the floor, holding out her arm. “I need your help.”  
  
“What do you want me to do?” Eyes going a little wider as his gaze flitted from her face to her wrist and back again, Karkat seemed very hesitant to touch her.  
  
“Hold my arm still while I set the bones.”  
  
“WHAT?”  
  
“Shhh,” Nepeta hissed, glaring at the other troll.  
  
“Sorry, force of habit– do you know what you're doing? What if you just make it worse?”  
  
“I've had to do it before. Gotten hurt while hunting back home. Just hold my arm above where it's broken, there, yeah, and I'll…” Gritting her teeth, she grabbed her wrist just at the base of her palm and jerked the bones back into alignment, or as close as they had any chance of being. Tensing up, a low growl vibrated her chest as she squeezed her eyes shut. They were sore and dry, but no more tears came.  
  
“Better?” Karkat raised his eyebrows, still holding onto her arm.  
  
“Better, but I need a way to keep it like this.” She looked at the furniture piled against the door, searching for bits of something to fashion a splint from. Getting to her feet, she tried to snap the leg off one of the chairs.  
  
“I'll do it.” Standing beside her, Karkat broke off one chair leg and then another. “A splint, right? You need something to tie it together with.” He looked around.  
  
Avoiding his eye, Nepeta shrugged. “Can I use your shirt?”  
  
Biting back his initial retort, Karkat set the chair legs down before taking a few steps away from Nepeta. Turning his back to her, he pulled his shirt over his head, and then held it out to her without looking. Then he blinked and glanced her way. “Need it to be torn up?”  
  
“Please?” Nepeta winced, looking sidelong at the other troll. “You don't need to rip it all up. Maybe just a few strips from the bottom?”  
  
Grunting, Karkat flipped the shirt over, biting down on the bottom seam and tugging sharply to tear it. Pulling off a strip from all the way along the bottom, he dropped it on top of the chair legs. “Are two pieces enough?”  
  
“Should be.”  
  
Adding a second tattered strip to their improvised medical kit, Karkat pulled what was left of his shirt back over his head only to discover his stomach was left fully exposed. “Fucking perfect.” He tugged on it in a futile attempt to cover himself. Gathering the wood and cloth into his arms, he joined Nepeta again in a seat on the floor. “Tell me what to do.”  
  
Through Nepeta's instruction, the splint was quickly assembled and tied snugly into place.  
  
Testing her arm, she found the pain had receded somewhat and she had regained limited range of motion. Tentatively lifting her own shirt, it was clinging to her stomach where Gamzee's horns had pierced her. She let her shirt fall back into place, not wanting to risk tearing off the scabs that had hopefully formed. Getting to her feet, she held her arms out, extending both sets of claws. “I'm going back out.”  
  
“You're _what_?”  
  
“I'm going back out there.” She nodded toward the door. “I have to cull Gamzee.”  
  
Back on his feet beside her, Karkat was shaking his head. “Nepeta, you can't, you're not strong e–” He cut himself off with a strangled squeak when Nepeta suddenly seized the collar of his shirt and lifted him right off his feet. He stared down into her narrowed eyes as he was held aloft. “I dangle corrected,” he rasped, coughing when she let him go. “Nepeta, what's gotten into you?”  
  
“Equius is dead.” A chill ran down her spine in the silence that followed. She felt her eyes widen at the acknowledgment.  
  
“He's…” Karkat trailed off, blanching a lighter grey. “Gamzee– fuck fuck FUCK!” He began pacing, fingers tangling in and pulling at his hair. He sent Nepeta a pitiful look. “I'm so fucking sorry, Nepeta. It's all my fucking fault.” He ground his fists into his eyes.  
  
“It's not.”  
  
“It is! I ordered the swe– Equius to go cull Gamzee.” He continued his pacing, letting his fists drop from his eyes. “Fuck! I thought he had the best shot. God, were you– did you see it happen?”  
  
“It's not your fault,” Nepeta repeated, brushing off Karkat's question. “It's Equius' fault.” She was shaking slightly.  
  
“What?”  
  
“He didn't do anything, didn't even try to stop it. He just knelt there and took it.” Her voice was rising as her hands balled into fists at her sides. “He didn't fight back.”  
  
“Nepeta, you know he was–”  
  
“He was the strongest out of all of us and he let Gamzee cull him, just let Gamzee choke the life out him with a _smile on his face_.” The points of her claws were beginning to dig into her thighs, drawing blood. “He couldn't bring himself to stand up to the _highblood._ Not for himself, not for me.”  
  
Karkat grabbed her shoulders, shaking her lightly to get her claws free of her legs. “He was an idiot.” He flinched under her glare. “He was, okay? He was too obsessed with the hemospectrum for his own good, but that doesn't mean you have to go off and die too.”  
  
“Who says I'm gonna die?” Still glaring, Nepeta raised her eyebrows. “Do I have to toss you across the room next? He was as much my moirall as I was his.”  
  
“Yeah.” Karkat rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding her eye for a moment. “Do you want me to come with you?”  
  
Nepeta shook her head. “Just help me get the door open and then you can barricade yourself back in here.” Thinking about it, she looked at the other troll. “Do you know what happened to the others? I mean besides… Equius told me about Eridan.”  
  
Karkat shook his head, looking guilty. “I can't get ahold of anyone on Trollian.”  
  
Nodding, Nepeta turned back to the barricade, beginning to shift some of the furniture.  
  
“Nepeta.”  
  
“You're not going to change my mind, Karkat.”  
  
He touched her shoulder. “I know.” He tugged gently, wanting her to turn around.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
Once she was facing him, he pulled her close, suddenly pressing his mouth against hers.  
  
Freezing up, she found herself staring at his blurry, too-close face for a moment while a nagging voice in the back of her thinkpan insisted that she was wasting precious time. Squashing that voice, she squeezed her eyes shut and clumsily returned the kiss, just in case.  
  
Something was wrong. Their mouths and noses were mashed together in a slightly painful way that probably meant she wasn't doing the kissing thing right. At least not right for red kissing. But the something wrong that she was sensing was separate from that, something in the way she was being forced to bend slightly backwards, in the way he seemed to be leaning on her just a little too heavily, in the way he had started to smell. Acrid, sort of sour, an awful lot like stale… sopor… slime.  
  
She opened her eyes and screamed.


End file.
